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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29426754">ticking in the back of my mind</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/catsinouterspace/pseuds/catsinouterspace'>catsinouterspace</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>you found religion when you found out you could fall [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Supernatural</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Art History, Author can name like three artists i'm sorry, Bisexuality, College, Non-binary character, Other, Pre-Cannon, Pre-Relationship, Queer Themes, Questioning, Stanford Era (Supernatural), Trans Character</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 13:20:32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,828</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29426754</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/catsinouterspace/pseuds/catsinouterspace</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“I want to do something with art, have a bit of a break from science you know.” Jess said as she flipped open the course book.</p><p>“Oh no way,” Sam found himself saying, “That’s the subject I was thinking of taking.” It most certainly was not; in fact, he had quite confidentially skipped the entire arts section of the book.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jessica Moore/Sam Winchester</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>you found religion when you found out you could fall [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2161626</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>ticking in the back of my mind</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sam stared at the glossy pages of the course book in front of him, the pages seemed to go on forever. Being pre-law meant that he didn’t have many electives, nearly all of his subjects had to count towards his major. Sam had one elective in his first semester and he didn’t want to waste it.</p><p>There was a load thud next to him and Sam nearly jumped out his skin, since when had he been that easy to sneak up on? An identical course book had been plopped onto the table by a smiling blonde.</p><p>“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” Jess apologised. They had met briefly at a party the night before, drunk on the punch that had been going around in red solo cups like a scene straight from a movie, Jess had dragged Sam away from the snacks table he had been awkwardly hovering at to her group of friends. “Trying to figure out subject selections too?” She slid into the chair next to him.</p><p>Sam felt his heart begin to speed up, Jess was, well, gorgeous. She was also quick witted and friendly. “Uh, yeah.” Sam’s voice started off too high pitched and then he dropped it too low to compensate, he mentally berated himself for the world’s lamest answer.</p><p>“Your pre-law, yeah?” Jess asked. Sam was surprised she remembered, it was one of those things everyone asked when they met you but, just like names, the answers were instantly forgettable.</p><p>“Yeah, and pre-med, right?”</p><p>Jess nodded. “Gotta make the elective subjects count.”</p><p>Sam idly flicked through a few pages, “Fortunately there’s a subject on anything and everything.”</p><p>Jess grinned, Sam froze for half a second, his eyes drawn to her lips, her smile was nothing short of stunning. “Pretty sure any reading I have to do for my course is going to be a breeze after getting through this.” She opened the book, there several sticky note tabs poking out, “I have a short list going though.”</p><p>“What’s on it?”</p><p>“I want to do something with art, have a bit of a break from science you know.” She flicked to the first tab, “There’s a lot of <em>practical </em>art subjects, but while I love art, I’m definitely not too good at that side of things.” She flipped to another page, “So I’m thinking maybe art history, plus Professor Dawson is apparently <em>amazing.”</em></p><p>“Oh no way,” Sam found himself saying, “That’s the subject I was thinking of taking.” It most certainly was not; in fact, he had quite confidentially skipped the entire arts section of the book.</p><p>“That’s awesome! It’d be so good to have a familiar face.”</p><p>Sam smiled, “Yeah, definitely.”’</p><p>“So, what sort of art do you like?”</p><p>Sam blinked, “Um like, you know, all kinds, I guess, uh Van Gough?”</p><p>Jess’ left lip quirked up as though she knew that he was lying, but she played along, “Oh yeah, a lot of people think he’s overdone at this point but the reason he’s so popular is because he’s amazing, you know?”</p><p>Sam did not, but he nodded anyway.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>The class room was arranged in a large U shape. Sam had Criminal Justice Ethics in the class room next door just before, so he was the first to arrive, even before the tutor. He walked into the classroom, taking a seat towards the back end of one of arms of the U. He placed his bag on the table, pulling out an exercise book and the textbook. Even though, unlike his law courses, this subject didn’t have any pre-reading he’d read the introduction to the book, as well as the chapter on Van Gough, least Jess expect him to know more about his supposedly favourite artist then <em>The Starry Night </em>and a chopped off ear.</p><p>A few people filtered into the classroom, one still wearing pyjamas, another with bright green hair shaved into a mohawk. The student in pyjamas moved to pull out the seat next to Sam. Sam offered a tight grin, the seat on his other side was still empty, hopefully no one would sit there and then Jess could. He stretched, awkwardly placing his arm over the back of the other chair, hoping to dissuade other students from sitting there as they entered.</p><p>A familiar face entered the room, her curly blond hair pulled up into a messy pony tail. Sam’s face broke into a grin and he had to physically fight to curve his lips into a slightly flatter line, lest he looks like an over exuberant stalker. Jess caught sight of him quickly, a smile also spreading across her face. Sam removed his arm from the chair and Jess made her way over.</p><p>Sam briefly bit his bottom lip, anxiety mixing with excitement.</p><p>“Hey,” Jess said pulling out the chair.</p><p>“Hey,” Sam echoed, he picked up one of his pens, worrying at the sticker that declared it <em>Black Biro, </em>until the metallic film started to lift up.</p><p>“How’s law going?”</p><p>“Good!” Sam replied, having to raise his voice over the chatter of other students, “There’s a lot of reading, but that was expected. How’s med?”</p><p>“Really good,” Jess pulled her books out of her bag, dumping the bag on the floor next to her, “Don’t know how I’m going to manage to fit in all the course work, but I’m sure I’ll manage.”</p><p>The tutor entered the room, a harried looking man, he wore a pastel blue shirt adorned with white clouds, and gold rimmed circular glasses. Sam wondered if he actually needed them or if it was just for the aesthetic. It worked for him; the roundness of the glasses juxtaposed with his sharp cheekbones making his face look even more striking than it would have otherwise.</p><p>“Hi everyone,” The tutor brought his seat round from behind the wooden desk so it sat in front of it, he then used the palms of his hands to boost himself onto the desk, sitting with his feet resting on the chair. “I’m Louis, and welcome to Art History.” He surveyed the class, almond eyes watching them for a moment, “We have the whole semester to get into content so I’d like to spend today getting to know you guys.”</p><p>Sam raised his eyebrows, silently wondering if he had made a mistake with this class. He glanced at Jess who was chewing on the end of her biro, and decided that whatever ice breakers he’d have to awkwardly shuffle through today were worth it to see where this went.</p><p>“I want to go around the class room, name, pronouns, major, favourite artist.”</p><p>Sam blinked. His chest felt fluttery, like he’d drank too much caffeine after skipping sleep and breakfast.</p><p>The class was pretty small, only twelve students.</p><p>“Hi, I’m Alice, she/her, I’m majoring in history and my favourite artist is probably Barbara Kruger.” The pyjama’s girl said, meaning it was Sam’s turn. Every student before him had mentioned an artist he hadn’t heard of and he really wished he’d looked into finding someone a bit more obscure and interesting then Van Gough, but he guessed he’d already told Jess he was his favourite.</p><p>Sam offered a smile to the class, “I’m Sam, I uh, use he pronouns I guess, and I’m doing pre-law, my favourite artist is Van Gough.”</p><p>Louis nodded.</p><p>“Hey,” Jess offered a wave, “I’m Jess, I use she/her pronouns, and I’m doing pre-med, I would say my favourite artist is probably Abraham Angel.”</p><p>The person with a green mohawk was the last to go, “I’m Synth, I use they/them pronouns, I’m undecided, and my favourite artist is David Wojnarowicz.”</p><p>Sam stared at Synth. He didn’t mean to stare it was just, well, Synth sort of invited staring at; with the green hair, a nose ring and an eyebrow piercing, they wore a black v neck t shirt and a studded denim jacket. Sam had seen punks before but the subculture wasn’t exactly huge. And then there were the pronouns. Sam wasn’t unaware of the whole gender is a spectrum thing, but he had never actually met someone who was trans. <em>That he knew of, </em>he corrected himself.</p><p>“Okay,” Louis said, “So, I’m going to split you up into groups based on your favourite artists and we’ll shuffle from there. Jess, Synth, and Alice you’re all political so you can be in a group. Alex, Oscar and Sophie preferred the modernists. Kyle, Wendy, and Maddy can be the classicist group. And we’ll group impressionists and post-impressionists together with Sam, Jade, and June.”</p><p>Louis gave them several questions to discuss and Sam was very grateful that he’d read the chapter on Van Gough, he didn’t have much to contribute to the conversation in terms of Jade’s favourite, Claude Monet, or June’s, Georges Seurat, but at least he didn’t make a complete arse of himself.</p><p>“Okay, time to mix it up,” Louis called.</p><p>The groups fell silent after finishing off their last remarks.</p><p>“The groups are going to be a bit more arbitrary this time, those whose name starts with S, those with J, those with A, and Kyle you can go with that group, and then the rest of you.”</p><p>Sam shuffled over the corner Synth was already sitting in and Sophie was heading towards.</p><p>“Hey,” Synth greeted Sophie and Sam with a nod, “S Squad.”</p><p>“Hey,” Sophie smiled sitting down.</p><p>Sam joined them, “So we’re only missing the classicist.”</p><p>“Gotta say they have to be my least favourite type of artist.” Synth said. “So Van Gough,” Synth eyed Sam for a moment, “Bit of a mainstream choice,”</p><p>“Something wrong with that?” Sam had spent a great deal of his life working towards the coveted mainstream.</p><p>Synth shook their head, “Nah, I mean, who doesn’t love Van Gough. So, what are your favourite paintings?” Synth asked the first question they had to work their way through.</p><p>“I like <em>Irises</em>.” Sam said.</p><p>Synth grinned, “Good to know you know more than <em>Starry Night.” </em></p><p>Sam’s lip quirked up, he was pretty sure Synth had picked him as having no clue about art.</p><p>“Why <em>Irises</em>?” Sophie asked.</p><p>“There’s this whole thing with art, that artists need to be suffering, but a lot of Van Gough’s art was created while he was seeking mental help, probably because he was getting better, he made Irises while he was in Saint Paul’s, the painting itself is full of life without tragedy.” Sam sent a silent prayer that neither of them had read <em>Irises </em>Wikipedia recently, he fully agreed with the statement but it wasn’t exactly something he could have guessed by just looking at the paining.</p><p>“Huh,” Synth said, “Nice.”</p><p>Sam’s lips quirked up at that, feeling shockingly pleased to have their approval, he didn’t know why he cared so much; sure, he wanted his class mates to like him of course but…</p><p>“What about yours Sophie?” Sam asked, pushing the conversation forward before he could dwell on his feelings.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This is based on the episode Provenance where Sam tells Dean he took Art History to pick up girls.</p><p>I'm currently re-watching the show, never got past the start of S10 when it was airing and havent touched it since and I am 👀at everything Sam does. Love himb.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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